I have recently been blitzed with dozens of questions on foam decoys. Which I welcome fully! I figured I would post up some pictures of head options for different species to help folks who are getting into the hobby. Today's postings will be of some Brant Heads, Snow Goose Heads, and Canvas Back Heads. As more questions come in I will post up more pictures of heads that I have. I also have a full listing of other heads and I am purchasing more molds as well. I am also linked into the major mold maker in the US right now and can get answers from him within a day or two of asking. If you want to know where to get the molds pm me. I will be happy to get you the mold maker's email.

This picture shows a resting and feeding Brant head at the top of the picture and Snow Goose heads at the bottom. I am planning to cast 3 to 4 dozen snow goose floater / field decoys this summer.

This shot is of a close to completed Brant Decoy with the Alert or Sentry head. I don't have any of these sitting unused at the moment.

Shot of two life sized buffies with carved bodies, and cast heads. The drake is a buffy mold, the hen is a hen teal mold that is perfect for hen buffies with some bill modifications. The hen head needs the cheek coloring, and another coat of Apoxy Sculpt on the bill. The sides have not had the proper washes to match a live birds side pocket mottling and coloration.

As questions come in about different heads and options for body sizes they work on I will be posting them up in this thread for folks to follow. Keep sending any questions you guys have my way. I am happy to answer them.

Thanks for the info. I got one mold from Marvin, just need more heads. I think a dozen or so canvasback dekes would look good. I still need to order the EPS beads... Wish it was cheaper to ship out here, or a local place in Seattle that would carry them...

At times if you keep on it you can find a local company that is finishing up a production run of foam items and buy their left over material for around $1.80 a lb. Shipping makes the EPS costs ridiculous for sure.

If we get enough interest in the foamers we should set up a weekend at someones place up north. I can run up and bring all my hed and body molds. Everyone can bring propane stoves, big pots, and their molds with EPS and we can go crazy casting heads and bodies. If we got enough people together a bunch of folks could walk away with a lot of the spread components they need without having to buy the molds.

I would love to do something like this. I have been wanting to get into molding and having an expert at it like you be able to show me would be awesome. I dont have a place to be able to host something like this but if it gets organized I will definitely be their.

I am along run from most folks on here. If we can find a guy to host, I am game to bring all my mold and my pooch and pitch a tent in a yard. If we all pitch in some cash, I can out in a big order of foam and we can go crazy making bodies and heads.

ScaupHunter wrote:I am along run from most folks on here. If we can find a guy to host, I am game to bring all my mold and my pooch and pitch a tent in a yard. If we all pitch in some cash, I can out in a big order of foam and we can go crazy making bodies and heads.

What do you think we would be looking at for cost of foam if we had 5 or so guys into this?

I will call Randy at Polysource and see what he would charge for a ton of EPS picked up at his place, and also shipped. I will post up here on the price per lb. There is no way in one long weekend we can get a ton of bead cast unless a lot of other folks have a lot of molds. We will also want to toss Tealer some cash for the pick up and fuel for hooking us up. I already planned to have him get some bead for me on his trip out east this summer.

Let me do some talking and we will see what we can get figured out. We will want to find a spot where we can put a bunch of guys up for the weekend, even if that means tenting in someones back yard, or finding a camping area with plenty of room to set up camp stoves and cooking pots.

I just got off the phone with Randy at Polysource for some price break downs.

500 lbs of EPS costs $1,250

1,000 lbs cost $2,500

That is $2.50 a lb. The real price break down comes when you buy an entire Gaylord at 1103 lbs. The price drops to $1.61 a lb at that point. The upcharge is due to additional handling time and effort on the companies part to get you the smaller quantities of foam.

1103 lbs = $1,775.

Shipping will run $500 to $600. The stuff has Hazardous Materials Shipping Requirements. Including the hauler being licensed for it so unfortunately Tealer cannot pick the bead up for us. I will be shopping around and hitting a few local resources up to see if I can get a Gaylord of EPS resin locally for the $1,775 price. That would significantly lower the overall costs.

Also note that 1103 lb / 5 guys = 220.6 lbs of foam. Guys, I have 100 lbs of bodies cast and that is a large spread. I have another 100 lbs left to cast to make my spread larger than it really needs to be.

How long would you have to use it before it went bad? It would take me two or three years to even use 100 lbs. It is a lot better price though if you order in bulk like that since if you order 50 lbs just for yourself it's about 250 bucks.

You have about 6 months then it will slowly start to expand less as the Pentane gas escapes. If you get the 100 lbs you would want to cast all of it over the 6 months and the. Makes decoys out of the bodies as you can.

I have a local source that I am working that May sell in bulk for $3 a lb for a get together. I have a couple more I will check prices with as well.

Tealer can haul hazmat so he can pick up beads at Polysource if we need him to.

Scaup let me know if you get that local source. I can even drive down if need be. I have ordered head beads but haven't ordered the body beads yet. Local without the shipping costs would help quite a bit get rolling...

We will need to get enough guys together to make it worth buying. The local companies are not going to be allowing multiple purchases. They normally don't sell any bead. They bring it in and run it out the door as manufactured foam product. We need to see how many guys are interested, get an order in, and then do a single pick up. The minimum order is $300 for 100 lbs. With any quantity over that minimum allowed for the order. If we have three guys that need 100 lbs, then other folks could order 25, 50, 75 lbs each and we can seperate it out at the get together.

Those who want to order would need to front the money to one person shortly before the pick up so the bead is all paid for up front. The trick will be the Hazmat Hauling. If you are going to pick it up and drive a few miles they won't care. If you have a long run they will refuse to let you make a pick up without the proper licensing to haul hazmat. Tealer is a great guy and runs all over the place in Washington. He may be willing to hook us up with a pick up of the bead on one of his through that area. We would of course want to cut him some cash to help with fuel and time.

One way or another we can get at least one and likely two orders in a year for bead. It would be best if we keep the contact people minimized to one or two of us. If they get inundated with calls and requests that supply line will close.

I am going to start a thread about a possible get together and see if we can get enough interest going to get this off the ground, set a date, and find a place where we can get together. I know Bknilivr was talking about making foamers and will probably be all over this idea. I will text him on the idea, he also has a huge back yard where we could possible pitch tents and camp out while casting a ton of bodies.